Fri, 16 Feb 2018 11:36:00 -0800WeeblySat, 12 Nov 2016 22:00:11 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/building-a-stone-wallWhat with firewood to cut, chickens to feed, trails to clear and viking ships to build there are a 1001 things to do here up at Lone Wolf Forest. Just doing chores can make for a dull dwight, so it's important to have a project all of your own. This year I decided to build a wall.Now Owls Nest is built on the side of a hill. The driveway goes up across the hill with one side being up and the other side down. I decided to excavate the upper side about 60 feet alongside the driveway, build a rock wall, backfill it with earth and plant fruit trees and bushes there. Simple really. I am pretty good with the backhoe on my tractor but I had never built a wall before.The first step was to consult with my friend Charles. Charles works in landscaping and has a thing for stone walls, stacked drywalls to be exact. Charles came up in the spring and we had a look at the lay of the land. We discussed, how far back to dig, how deep to go, foundation, drainage, laying the wall, anchoring ot uphill so it wouldn't fall over, etc. etc, etc. We decided it was feasible.The first thing was to stake out a line where the wall would go. There was bedrock exposed at the upper edge where the driveway broadened into the parking area. This would mark the top end of the wall. About 60 feet down, a side trail went up the hill. The wall would go here, about 4 feet from the driveway. Next it was time to dig. Over the next few weeks I would backhoe earth and rocks, turn the tractor around to scoop material with the bucket and repeat down the length where I was going to build. As I got down to rock I ended up shoveling out what was left. I didn't have to get it all, just close. I had been hoping for a smooth rock slope but it turned out to be bedrock protrusions, roots and hardpack gravel.

Tree Roots/Excavation

Now that I had the wall site cleared it was time to go looking for rock. Charles was talking about a stacked stone drywall. You've all seen pictures of them. I was going to need hundreds of rocks for that and while I had a sand quarry, I didn't have a rock quarry. In my casual inspection of the land I had spotted about a dozen rocks lying on the ground that would do. It would take me years of digging to find all I needed. No instead I decided to go big, to go bold. Instead of a stacked wall I would build a wall of upright monoliths, my own Stonehedge. Instead of hundreds I would only need dozens, still a challenge.Late spring Charles, Pops and I went of a walk down Sahara road by the sand pit. Right beside the sand pit we found a beauty, a pink granite rock, flat on the bottom and two sides and standing about 4 feet high. This would become the anchor at the lower corner of the wall, the first rock you would see coming up the driveway. We kept walking and identified about a dozen potential rocks. I felt good that all the rock I needed I would find on put land.Finding a rock is one thing but moving it into place is another. Charles estimated the pink granite weighed over 700 pounds.I had just bought a new to me payloader, a Hughes 650 and it was a monster. I was sure I could sling that rock, drag it out of the bush, lift it onto the trailer and then I could drive it to Owls Nest where I could lift it off with the tractor and place it in position. I was right about the payloader, that beast lifted the rock like it was not even there. The trailer sagged a bit under the weight but I had no trouble driving it up to Owls Nest. My problems started when I tried to lift it off the trailer with the tractor. It wouldn't budge! I could go and get the loader but it didn't have breaks and I remember the last time I came down the hill with the tractor and almost put it in the lake. No thanks. Now hydraulics are a function of tractor rpm, so I revved the motor to max and lifted. The rock came up two inches. Besides lift, I can also tilt so I tried tilting the bucket up and now I was a foot off. I drove the trailer out from under the rock and drove the tractor, flattened tires and all, down the driveway to where I wanted to place the rock. Now I couldn't come in at right angles as I would have to drive on the weeping tiles of the septic system but as this was the first rock it shouldn't be a problem. I was alone and done in for the day so I left the rock there. I would place it tomorrow.

I had researched how to lift rocks but I only found one site that talked about what I was trying to do. What I gleaned from it was to use a single sling to lift the rock and let it hang freely. Trying to lift a rock straight with multiple slings was almost impossible to do. The problem with a single sling is that the rock will not hang straight and will rotate. Also where the sling goes through itself will set the direction of the lean as well as which way it faces. The height of the sling will set the amount of lean. The slope of the rock face also comes onto play. You need something for the sling to grab. Set the sling too high and it will slip off the top. Set it to low and the rock could flip over. All this I learned with this first rock. Luckily Charles was up to lend a hand. I was pretty nervous with Charles trying to muscle a 700 pound rock as I lifted, lowered and inched it into place. By just resting the rock on the ground, Charles was able to prybar it into place. It worked.

Moving the Pink Granite Rock

With the corner stone firmly on place, it's time to gather other rocks. While on our hike we had spotted several potential rocks. Sure enough, when I went back I found several stones that looked good.

Now my plan was to have a fairly even top to the wall going from about 2 feet at the top of the driveway to 4 feet (the height of my pink granite) at the bottom. As I inspected each rock I checked for a flat bottom which was a must. In addition I wanted two flatish sides to butt against the rocks on either side and a flat outside facing the driveway. Oh yes, a flat or pointed top was good too. This was quite stringent criteria and it was rare to find it all in one rock, but I got pretty close on most of them. As I found rocks I would measure the height. Some were too short, one was too tall and a few were just too round instead of square as I wanted. Some were laying out on the ground, some were partially buried in the ground, some were along the trails and some were spotted out in the bush. All in all, I brought back and placed 24 rocks. Most were picked my the loader or tractor. For a couple I took the ATV and trailer onto the trails and winched the rocks onto the trailer. When we were building the yurt site the backhoe operator had placed a couple of very thin (6 inches) slabs onto the ground as steps. I took these too.

As I brought stones back I placed them according to height and the angle of fit against neighbouring rocks. I ended up with three separate groupings and it was quite tricky to find rocks of the right height and width fo fit the final gaps but I did it.

While I could place a rock relatively easily with the tractor by now, every rock had to be moved to ensure it was aligned with the next rock, wasn't too far in or out, butted firmly to lock it in place and was 90 degrees upright and not leaning over. To do this I found it handy to park the tractor along side the wall and to use a come along from the tractor to the rock to put it under tension and use the prybar to move the rock. To move away from the driveway I used a second come along from a tree up the hill, and to butt the stones, I used a third come along to pull the rock down the hill to touch the next rock. Complex but it worked beautifully.

Trailer Rocks

]]>Tue, 09 Feb 2016 03:30:52 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/ice-wallWinter is long and darkness comes early. It is cold out. What is a poor boy to do?

Why build an ice tower of course!

I have been thinking about this for some time now. To build an ice tower you need three things, water, height and cold. Well cold comes every winter and winter is here (again). That part is easy. It is the combination of water and elevation that is difficult to find.

A cliff facing north with a water supply above is perfect, but sadly, rare. We have a few north facing hills on the property plus a creek running through, but unfortunately the creek runs below the hills, not above (funny how that is). I have scouted out possible sites but how to get water up there? Or maybe I should put some hydro poles up over the creek and pump water there? Possible but sounds like a lot of work.

Back at the house I was looking out at the lake, about 100 feet below the house. Yes the house is on the side of the hill overlooking the lake. Hey maybe a couple of poles in the lake and a pump on the ice? Hummm possible, maybe I should go outside and get a better view through the tree tops. Looking through the treetops? Say those two trees growing about 8 feet apart right beside the house. I bet the hose will stretch there. Yes it does! Now if I stretch a rope across and lean some boards up and then spray them with the hose - ice!

And so it started. I got about a 12 foot height started by first spraying by hand and then tying the hose to a stick stuck in the snow. I found that the mist setting works best. Next I put two ladders up against the trees and tied a rope about 25feet up and hung some old bed sheets down. The hose on the stick wasn't getting the water high enough so I bungie corded the hose to the ladder and sprayed from there. Having ice started on the second stage of the tower it was now time to add another section and continue building.

I had read a blog where snow fencing was used so I thought I would try that. One tree had a branch coming off about 10feet above the top of the second section of the tower. I strung three sections of snow fence together with a rope. I had Josh throw a block and rope over a high limb on the tree beside the higher ground at the house. With that I climbed the full height of the ladder on the other tree and tied the other end of the rope there. Then I pulled the snow fence up and across the gap and down to the ice below.

Now making ice is tricky. Too much water and you wash the ice away. Too little? Well I haven't had that problem yet. Also temperature is a factor. The colder the better. Last week saw above 0 temperatures so instead of making ice I watched it melt away. Generally the mist lands at the top and runs down as it cools before ice is formed. So, I am getting lots of ice at the bottom of the tower but not a lot above.

So how to get the water high and spray onto the ice below? Well the other tree has a branch coming out of it too, just higher. I climbed up to the branch, put a strap over with a couple of biners and then a rope. Yep time to get my harness on and tie in. No sense falling to my death building an ice wall.

So, having tied in I brought up a drill and eyehook and put the hook in about 3 feet out from the tree. Now with a rope through the hook I can pull up the nozzle and hose above the top of the ice wall. Once up I bungied the hose to a nearby tree and by twisting the hose I am able to direct the spray where I want (clever eh?). Want to move the nozzle to another place instead of under the hook? A second rope tied to the first above the nozzle and to the other side of the ice wall lets you pull the nozzle back and forth to cover parts ofthe snow fence that needs water.]]>Mon, 27 Jul 2015 02:54:54 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/building-a-garageLast fall I scored a neighbours garage. It was 24 feet by 32 feet on a cement pad. Over 4 days a group of friends helped me tear it down, load it on a hay wagon and drive it onto the back property. This year I will put it up.

Mic and I scouted out a few locations and I decided that the old garden by the sandpit was the best location. There was a bit more slope than I wanted but a few scrapes with the bucket on the tractor and we had an acceptable grade.

The plan was to pour 12 pads around the perimeter.5 on each side and 2 more (making a total of four) across the back. The front of the garage will be open to start.

We surveyed the site and located our four corners. We marked out the five pads for one wall. Mic had three concrete forms from his workshop so we used those.

We started Thursday July 9th early in the morning. Placing the forms was tricky. The sod had to be removed without disturbing the ground underneath. Mic used a hook scraper for that. Next we had to make sure the form was level. A few tamps with the tamper on the high corners/sides and cross checking with the level did the trick. The last thing to do was to make sure the forms were in line and the sides parallel to each other. Oh yes, each sucessive form has to be level with the first.

Mic has an electric concrete mixer so we brought his big generator over to use. We had sand from the sand pit, a pile of leftover stone from the workshop and a 2000 gallon water tank nearby. I picked 8 bags of portland cement and we were ready to go.

Mixing cement is easy as long as you remember to count. We had a small metal pail and you counted 6 pails of stone, 4 pails of sand and 2 pails of cement. All into the mix with water added to the right constancy and then dump into the wheelbarrow, dump into the form, shovel out rest, work the cement with the shovel to get it even and repeat. Do this 5 times and you fill the first form. We did 3 forms that day.

I had threaded rod which I cut to 18 inches. Each form got a threaded rod dead center sticking about 7 inches out. 3 forms done, 9 to go.

Friday I took the forms off and set about setting the next two up. Mic said not to worry too much about getting them lat the same height as this was generally impossible and we would be using shims anyways, 5 hours and countless adjustments later and I was done. I had to dig down about 2 feet to get the forms in level as the land was sloping upwards but still, 5 hours!

Glenn was up for some country work so that Saturday we got the next two forms filled. 5 down and 7 to go. This process repeated alternating with Mic or Glenn until 2 weeks later all 12 piers were done. Well that was the hardest part right? We'll see.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:21:53 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/logging-2015Last year was a huge effort that netted me 27 cords of firewood. I was off for 5 weeks so I had lots of time to cut, haul, block, split ans stack. Enough for at least 2 years right? Wrong! Of my three different piles of firewood, the one at the trailhead is completely gone, the Sahara desert is completely picked over with maybe a cord of oversized wood left, and I am at the ed of the rows behind the house. On the otherhand, I have moved about 5 cords to the cabin, the most I have ever had there. It is much easier bringing wood in by snowmobile and sled across the frozen lake instead of by rowboat across the lake in the summer.

This year I started March 12 and I decided to concentrate along the section at the Merry-go-round and Weasels Pass trails. There is some relatively flat land here and I plan to clearcut and put in a wildlife pasture here.

Cutting was much easier as I could drive up to the trees with the ATV, set the tracks overnight and have hard snow to walk on the next day. Cutting was much easier. Dragging logs out was simpler too as the Atv could stay on the hardpack trail, just backup to the log and easily drag it out to the yard at the Sahara.

So far I have put in 4 full days and 6 halfdays/evenings. Mic came up one day so far and did a heroic effort cutting trees in the morning (while I dragged them in) and blocking in the afternoon. We have about 60 - 16 footers in the yard which i hope will give me 20 cords. I'll need them all!

April 2 - Mic came up and we blocked about 1/2 of the logs.April 9 - Mic and I finished blocking. We went through two chains each plus two sharpenings even though we were cutting on the snow. I bought a chain sharpener in Florida when I picked my Pop up and drove back. It works great.April 16 - Splitting begins! Mic and I load a trailer up with blocks,drive them to the splitter, split, stack and repeat. Each trailer takes about 1 hour and is about 1/2 a cord. We get 6 trailers done, or about 3 cords.

As we painfully remember, my 30' x 40' tent collapsed in the winter of 2012. Since then I have been cobbling together little shelters and dreaming about a new garage. Well last week my dream sort of came true.

My neighbour had a garage that didn't have a building permit and well, it had to go. This was a two bay garage measuring 24 feet wide and 32 feet deep. All I had to do was move it!

The week of Sept 24th was looking good. Clear, warm with no rain in the forecast. My friend Mic agreed to give me a hand along with a few others as they had time.

I was up bright and early on the Thursday morning, up on the roof taking the shingles off. I got 1/2 of the roof done when Mic showed up. A few moments later Blaze made it and together we got all the shingles off and 7/8 of the aspenite sheets off. These were particularly difficult to get off because the nails tended to pull through and we had to use levers and prybars to get the sheeting up without splitting it. By 4 PM we were done for the day. Blaze and I had gone back to get his hay wagon. The wagon is ten feet wide and twenty feet long and the plan is to load the sheeting, trusses and walls on it for transport.

Friday morning I was back at it early. I got most of the sheeting off the roof and onto the ground before Mic showed up and Charles and Jack came to help. We got the rest of the sheeting off the roof and started to remove the trusses. First the soffets had to come off though which Jack was a master at. Once Mic removed the lumber joining the trusses together we knocked the nails out where the trusses were attached to the walls. Like a row of dominos, they all tumbled against one another. Mic and I pulled them, one by one, and as they flipped over Charles and Jack grabbed them and loaded them onto the wagon. With the wagon full took the roof materials away.

No one was available on the weekend so next Monday we were back at it. Mic, Blaze and Dave joined me as we took the walls down. First came the front. I had changed the forks onto the tractor and they just fit between the seperator between the two front doors. I lifted and pulled back with the trailer while Mic used the sledge to knock out the front. In no time at all I had the front of the garage on to the wagon. That worked well!

With the rest of the guys there I decided that at 32 feet, the side walls were too long to load on the wagon and, more importantly, too heavy to lift. I used a dull blade on the chainsaw and cut the sidewalls in two. Using the tractor to balance the wall, we pried them off the concrete base and dropped them onto the garage floor. With the tractor holding one end and 3 guys on the other we backed the walls out and loaded them on the wagon. I was ready to quit with half the walls down but the mantra, "We have the guys so do it now" kept getting repeated so we took down both side walls and the back as well.

Finally with the garage totally down and the wagon fully loaded we headed out. What a day!

]]>Mon, 11 Aug 2014 13:12:36 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/digging-and-clippingChipping is done for this year. I've got a big pile of about two trailers full below the house. That should be enough for the rest of this summer and for bedding down the gardens for the winter.Zac has his backhoe on now. Mic helped me take the chipper off and get the backhoe in place. We had to jack up the bucket to get the forks down to backup the tractor so they slid into place. All that to say that it would be an impossible task to do alone but it went off easily with two.I cleaned up some ditches along the way as I drove Zac to the main house. Last year I had dug out the garden area and the parking area. I went back at the parking area and with renewed confidence and experience I dug out a 50 foot wide swath at the back of the parking area up to 30 feet deep and 20 feet high. This only took me about 4 hours. Last year it would have taken me 16+. The dirt is still there in big piles, waiting to be dumped over the side as I extend the flat areas below the house.Our massive cedar hedge needed trimming. The hedge is on the side of a hill. I was able to get some done from the ground on the high side but I can't reach the top from the low side. Zac took a rest providing bucket support and I was finally able to reach the top. The hedge is now about two feet shorter and we can see the lake again.I've started clearing below the hedge. The plan is to dig back to the hedge, build a retaining wall about 16 feet out, backfill with earth and then plant fruit trees. I have a bunch of poplars that I need to bring down and the plan is to use them as the wall. I will need about 100 feet of wall, about 4 feet high so that will be a lot of trees. I plan on bringing the sawmill and cutting two sides of the logs for the wall.

]]>Mon, 23 Jun 2014 18:11:56 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/chips-chips-chipsWell the birds are singing and it's light out at 5AM so up we get and out we go! What's more garden without more chips? So now it back to the sawmill. A couple of weeks ago I had pulled a bunch of slab out of the sawdust pile and they had a chance to dry. somewhat so I spent a couple of hours loading the mill with slab, sawing them up into 5 inch widths and stacking. Ran out of gas on the sawmill so I chipped up a 1/2 trailer load and back to Owls Nest where they quickly disappeared! Back again with more gas. I forgot water which acts as a coolant for the blade but I got some at the old garden. and another batch of slab sawn until I was just too hot so another 1/3 of a trailer back to the gardens. I left the trailer for Lucy to empty and I am sure it will need refilling when I get home from work.I found more coolant leaks on the tractor so it will be back with my tool kits once again. It's too hot already. Sunday afternoon is spent on the first swim of the season.]]>Mon, 23 Jun 2014 16:00:38 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/more-arches-and-gardensWell, well, well isn't this a beautiful garden and isn't that a beautiful arch. I know, let's build some more!With the main arch up Lucy turned her attention back to the garden. I could hear her shooing the dogs out occasionally so, once when she was off to the yurt, I scavenged some metal rods, found a role of chicken wire and got a temporary fence up. Sweetie loved it! She immediately built a small enclosure and the chickens were out scratching and digging until all their new found grass was gone and they looked longingly to the garden proper. However the old gate had to go so I enlisted my friends Charles and Mic to build a new arch. Mic and I cut some cedar logs off the back property and brought them in. Charles laid out the groundwork and together we dug the four holes, planted and cemented the four posts and made them straight. These poles are 10 feet by 8 inches at the base. The next day Mic and I got the two beams cut and in place. The beams are also 10 feet but smaller at 6 inches. Next were the joists, about 8 of them on top, 6 feet long and about 3 inches at the butt end. Lucy got busy with all the cross supports and decorative work. The opening is 6 feet wide (8 for the wisteria arch) and we plan to put a gate up. I got holes dug on either side and Lucy planted grape vines that were bursting out of their pots. Maybe some good eating grapes in a few years? Now to get about 8 cedar poles about 8 feet apart to replace the fence from the gate to the chicken coop. My jobs are never done!]]>Mon, 26 May 2014 15:45:47 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/gardens-done-and-arch-on-the-wayThis weekend was a lot of hard physical work. Lucy had banged together two raised gardens out of 1x14 boards I retrieved from the shelter that came down this winter. Reuse, repurpose, rebuild, right? Now she had a third one done and it was time to haul sand again. With that out of the way I got down to filling the wheelbarrow with dirt, wheeling it about 10 feet (just too far to throw it by shovel) and filling the raised garden. Six wheelbarrows full and it was done.Next? Oh yes, an arch for the wisteria to climb. Lucy had planted it about 4 years ago and last year it really took off and climbed to the roof if the garage. I went out and found two cedar poles ten feet long and eight inches at the butt. I cut a cedar down for another two poles and there we had it. My friend Charles came up on Saturday for the day and we dug four holes in the ground, put the poles up, threw in stones and gravel and dumped a wet mix of concrete to seal it all. A few measurements with the level and some 1x1's screwed in between the posts and everything was left to settle and dry. The next evening after work I cut a twelve foot length of cedar with a six inch base. Using a few tricks I got it up on top of two poles, marked where it sat, took it down, used the chainsaw to notch flats, put it back up and drilled and hammered spikes in to keep it in place. The next evening I went out to cut down another cedar, got an identical pole out of it and got that one up. Next I need about thirteen poles, six to eight feet long with four inch butts to go crossways on top of the two twelve foot poles. Once that is done it's time for sweetie to move the wisteria to the arch for a summer of beautiful foliage, flowers and shade!

Two raised gardens. Yukon Gold potatoes under the straw and various vegetables at the back.

Shady raised garden. Snow peas at the back and lots of other veges in the front.

Wisteria arch in progress (the boss approves)

]]>Wed, 21 May 2014 13:46:33 GMThttp://www.lonewolfforest.com/dwights-blog/getting-the-gardens-readyWhile I had been busy getting firewood done Lucy has been busy prepping the gardens at Owls Nest. Last year I had dug out the hillside and put up two canoes and a rowboat as a raised garden. This year we built two raised gardens from 1"x20" by 16 foot boards beside the garage. We had been talking of bricking over the yard here and putting up a pergola but today it is raised gardens! Once Lucy had the sides nailed and staked in place I loaded four trailers with sand and half filled them. I got the truck started (oh yes, I found the key I lost last fall. It was on the driveway buried in the snow all winter) and picked up the old 4x8 trailer that had spent the winter out back. I was smart enough to bring the compressor and to fill the tires but once I got a bucket load of sand dumped in I noticed that one of the tires was still low. Now the compressor plugs into the cigarette lighter of the truck and the cord wasn't long enough to stretch all that way back to the trailer. What to do? I couldn't unlatch and lift the trailer by hand when it was full of sand so I brought the tractor in close, wrapped a chain around the trailer tongue and lifted it. Then I drove the truck around, filled the tire and got everything back together again. The tire still seemed low as I drove to the house. It held air with no load but it must have a small leak as the tire got flatter and flatter as I drove to the house. Just as I got up the hill to the driveway it went flat, but I managed to drive it right to the back of the house.It took quite a bit of work to shovel sand into a wheelbarrow, wheel it about 20 feet to the raised garden shells and shovel it all in. About 10 wheelbarrow loads emptied the trailer and 1/2 filled the bigger garden shell. I switched to the smaller green ATV trailer and two of those was enough to 1/2 fill the second shell.Now that the bottoms are full of sand it was time to fill the wheelbarrow with earth. We had purchased 10 yards of garden soil that came in a big dump truck and got dumped on the back lawn. Lucy has been busy putting soil on all the gardens but we still have a lot left. It took me about another 10 wheelbarrows to fill the raised garden shells. Lucy was quite pleased and immediately planted potatoes and beans in them. It was time for more sand again to fill in around the outside of the containers and smooth it all out.Of course now that we had the new gardens in it was time for wood chips. Now sweetie had been reminding me for a while that we needed more chips but I had been busy with other things. Now it was time. The plan was to take the backhoe off the tractor, put the chipper on, get the sawmill running, cut up a bunch of slabs small enough to fit in the chipper and chip away. Now what could go wrong? Actually it all went well. I got the backhoe off easily, the first time I had it off. The chipper went on easily too. The sawmill was running and I 1/2 loaded it twice with slab and cut them down to six inches. I also pulled out a lot of smaller pieces from the slab pile and I had quite the pile ready. The black flies are at their peak now so I am wearing a bug hat, long pants and shirt, etc.I got the big trailer hooked up to the truck and got it 3/4 full of wood chips before running out of wood. That's when I noticed rad fluid leaking from the top of the cab over my head. Now what is rad fluid doing all the way up there. It turns out that there is a heater up there and the rad hoses run up and back down. I never use heat in the cab so I plan on disconnecting the hoses and bypassing the leak.I dropped off the trailer at the house and in a couple of hours it was empty. I headed back to the slab pile and managed to find enough wood to chip another 1/2 trailer full, all the while keeping an eye on that rad lead and the engine temperature guage ( the engine temp stayed steady). Sweetie has emptied that trailer as well and I am sure at least another couple of trailers full of chips are needed. Oh, the trailer is 10'x6'x2' high walls or 4 cubic yards of material when full. So that is about 5 cubic yards so far with another 8 needed here. The plan is to saw up more slab (there is lots) and chip enough for the next two years (20 cubic yards maybe?) so I will not need the chipper again for a while. There is lots of deadfall along the trails so I might try driving the tractor and splitter down the ones I can get to and just chipping it all along the trail. First I have to fix that rad leak though.]]>